In this paper we examine the nature of disparities in regional (State) unemployment rates in Australia over the period 1978-1999 and their relationship to the national unemployment rate. As a measure of dispersion we use the sum of the (weighted) deviations of regional unemployment rates from the national rate. We show that this figure may be interpreted as the number of new jobs or labour force movements that would be needed to even out unemployment rates between regions, expressed as a proportion of the total number currently employed in all regions. Using co-integration analysis, we find that there is a (long-run) relationship between the degree of dispersion in the regional unemployment rates and the level of the national unemployment rate. The relationship between the two is negative implying that, as the national unemployment rate falls, micro and/or differentiated labour markets policies need to bite harder (and affect proportionately more people) if equity in unemployment across regions is to be maintained. We also find that the trade-off between dispersion and unemployment has become steeper in the period following significant deregulation of the Australian economy in the early Nineteen-Eighties. It would appear likely that this reflects an increase in differences in the Natural Rate of Unemployment between the regions since that time.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Length: 26 pages Date of creation: 2000 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:737
Contact details of provider: Postal: Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne, 5th Floor, Economics and Commerce Building, Victoria, 3010, Australia Phone: +61 3 8344 5289 Fax: +61 3 8344 6899 Email: Web page: http://www.economics.unimelb.edu.au More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Colemann Leong).
Find related papers by JEL classification: E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search R23 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)